Telecoms move up as FTSE continues comeback

LONDON'S heavyweight stocks continued their resurgence yesterday as the FTSE 100 Index soared to within reach of the 4300 barrier.

Telecoms, banking, oil and pharmaceutical stocks all moved ahead as investors sought bargains after the recent bloodbath in the square mile.

Further gains on the Dow Jones on Wall Street after its first positive close for seven successive sessions on Wednesday night also boosted hopes.

By the close the Footsie was up 106.7 at 4297.3, leaving the value of Britain’s top 100 companies up 302.8 points in three days.

Alex Scott, analyst at Seven Investment Management, said it was still a bear market but there were reasons for optimism.

“It’s too early to say the worst is behind us but it’s encouraging to see investors are out there looking for value,” he said.

Telecom stocks peppered the leaderboard with BT’s former mobile phone arm mmO2 closing up more than 5% after encouraging subscriber numbers. Rival Vodafone climbed 3p to 100p, BT moved ahead 13p to 251p while Cable & Wireless ended the day 7p better off at 175p.

Elsewhere banks were also higher, with Barclays surging 24p to 499p, HSBC up 13p to 732p and Royal Bank of Scotland ahead 50p to £16.50.

BP and Shell moved up 6p and p to 495p and 433p respectively while drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline recovered recent losses to close 29p higher at £12.08. Only seven of the top 100 lost value, including British Gas group Centrica which closed 2p lower at 170p.